Sri Lanka Watch learns from a reliable source in Colombo, that US Ambassador Patricia Butenis was summoned to the foreign ministry yesterday. Minister Rohitha Bogollagama expressed the concern of the GOSL regarding the comment made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

The sources said the US Ambassador was made to understand in no uncertain terms by Foreign Minister Bogollagama that US has no right to make such baseless allegations against the Sri Lankan armed forces. But US Ambassador had replied that in the full text of the speech by Secretary Clinton she made no reference neither to the Sri Lankan Army nor to the LTTE.

However, Ambassador Butenis said in a statement “During the 26-year long war in Sri Lanka, there were allegations of rape and sexual violence, just as in other conflicts. Secretary Clinton’s statement was to raise awareness of such brutality, not to implicate specific perpetrators,”.

Addressing the UN Security Council, on Wednesday, Clinton noted that rape had been used as a weapon of war in the Balkans, Burma, Sri Lanka and elsewhere, and that, in too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators of this violence were not punished, and so this impunity encouraged further attacks.